Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have started a new business and built an informational web site for it.  But I don`t feel that the site is very effective and it is not getting picked up by the search engines.  The site address is:

www.RJWestHomeInventory.com

Please take a look at this site and tell me what I can do to spice it up.  Please keep in mind that I am not a web designer and have no idea what I am doing with web design.  I am using a company called ValueWeb.com as the web site host and used their `create it online` software to create the site.  The site is an informational site whose purpose is to answer common questions about my service and create enough interest in the viewer to either call or fill out the contact for so I can call them and sell the service. 

I have also listed the site on Google AdWords, but with no real results.

My main question - What am I doing wrong?  How can I fix it?  If I can`t fix it pretty quick I will end up in bankruptcy court!!

Thank you for your assistance.

 

-------------------------

Rick West RJ West Home Inventory www.RJWestHomeInventory.com

I don`t mean to bring the bad news... but you asked for some input quickly... so here it is. (I am not pro... let`s make that clear too.)

The landing page (home page) is very dull. No images, no personalization. Nothing to keep my eyes entertained.

The titled could be better for search engine results. Not just a title, as you would a book, but also some key words in the title.

I would spend some time making your layout exciting, attention holding, and quite possibly less content per page. When a page goes on and on... the viewer usually moves on, before reaching the bottom.

That`s my quick comments.


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Hi Rick,

Site looks great for an `amateur`, far better than I could do 

A few of my personal favorites for increasing visits and capturing viewers info (as in you may not know how many people are really looking and staying on your website, so these are ways that you may be able to capture their information):

First, my advice would be take the information you have in the `introduction` expand on it a little, add 5 tips or something and make it into a Free Special Report. i.e. "The Insurance Information Institute estimated that Hurricane losses in 2005 were over 61.2 billion dollars. Register your email address here for 5 easy ways you can avoid being a statistic". And instead writing questions, provide answers and stats.  Encourage people to register their email address to obtain that useful and valuable industry.  As you come from this industry, I am sure you know what is the lingo to use and the kind of information your target audience is searching for. To see an example of how I use my report, visit my website at smartphoneinstitute dot com and look on the home page on the right side. I set that up using a program called intellicontact, an email listserve management program. It costs around $9 a month but can do a lot of nifty things. It also has a WSIWYG template for setting up a monthly newsletter, the autoresponder and survey features included in the monthly fee. Once people register for the report, an autoresponder automatically sends them the tips and asks them if they want to get my monthly newsletter. Then I have a way to keep in contact with people who are interested in my services.

 

The second thing that has been successful for me is submitting articles through ezinearticles.com (my own articles).  So you already have a page on your site that has supporting info which is good. You can put a spin on that and basically add your own articles as well. People who are interested in your product and services will read the article. At the end of the box they allow you to include a resource box where you can basically write, Rick West is the CEO of RJ West Home Inventory, to receive his Free Special Report "How to Blankety, blankety blank" click here. The link will take them to your site where they can then enter their info into the sign up box and it just keeps happening, over and and over again with no maintenance or interaction required on your part. The more hits to your site, the higher your page ranking moves. So make it something good

 

Congrats again on getting your website successfully launched and hope this helps a little.

 

Best,

Shonika

The content is very good. I think what you need is a bit more visual
stimulation. Maybe some pictures of tattered homes or raging storms.
And maybe a little more color throughout. I don`t know how to help with
search engine optimization except to suggest that you buy some time on
googles sponsered site section.
Good luck

Hi Rick:  Call ValueWeb and ask them to walk you through setting the meta-tags and meta-descriptions.  This will help improve your exposure to the web crawlers which will get your site a better position with the search engines and possibly more relevant hits- random hits are useless.  You will need as well some analytics in place.  With ValueWeb providing the hosting, they should be willing to help you with design advice and search engine optimization if they want to keep you as a happy customer. 

Hello RJ,

A newsletter would really benefit your site. I would also take time to add a few more graphics (maybe of houses?).

Do you have any testimonials you could post from customers, OR do you have any articles from the news that you could use that talk about how useful a service LIKE yours turned out to be after a disaster?

It look like you have a lot of information from other people to digest. Hopefully it will help you--I do like the general layout and design of your site. Good luck!

James

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James Skinner Vice President & COO OnlineSiding LLC jskinner@onlinesiding.com www.onlinesiding.com 877-642-2496 x102

Google has some great tools for webmasters. You can find out what people are searching for when they hit your site. There is also content on there on how to make your website more compatible with search engines. Since Google is one of the major players it is good to listen to their advice.

All images should have ALT tags to describe the image. Remember search engines don`t know how to interpret images, but they can read the text on your website. It will also help with accessibility for blind or disabled users that use screen readers.

There is a lot of advice out there that you can find. I tend to use the advice the search engines themselves provide as this is what they are looking for to rank you in the results.

http://www.google.com/webmasters/
http://www.google.com/analytics/

Regards,
Adam  Baldwin
Information Security Consultant

Hi Rick,
I took a look at the site and had some thoughts. By way of my perspective bias: if I`m not captured by the home (or landing) page, I rarely go further. So that`s where I believe the big bang should be. It`s like the first page of a story, or the first few minutes of a movie.

My first question was, "what`s this site about?" I thought it was a weather reporting site, and only stayed there because you`d asked for some comments as the developer. I eventually figured out (maybe) what`s the product, which I believe is home inventory? Why is that a product? Or is it an insurance company?

No disrespect personally, but I hate reading right away that the Web site won`t do anything and I have to call or email for real action. Why bother with a Web site if it`s just a redirector? I want to get involved and do something with the site. Order something, get something, pay for something...whatever, but not spend time there only to find I could better have looked in a phone book.

Perhaps one way around that would be to have a couple of paragraphs of what you do, why I need to call (or email), and a form to fill out with what you would ask me in an email or phone call?

I read the list of facts, but it was kind of boring. I`d much rather see this under a FAQ tab, or menu item, or somewhere other than on the main page. If you`re going to list facts, directly link them to me. I live in the Midwest, so we don`t have hurricanes. We have tornadoes, but not all that much.  (Here`s a guy, Joe Vitale, who really goes big into how to use language for marketing: http://www.mrfire.com/)

Finally, I`m a very big believer in voting for something, not voting against. The site seems to focus on disaster and catastrophe. I don`t like that, and wonder at the never-ending debate between positive versus negative advertising.

So in terms of my desires, wants, and what I`m looking for:
1. What is this product? Why am I looking at this page?
2. What will it do for me?
3. How much does it cost?

Does anyone know of someone to hire to write an e-book for my web-site?

Is it important to have a web-site, logo and all contents copyrighted?  I was going to purchase someone else`s web-site and they do not want to sign over the copyright.

Any advice.

Thanks,

mt